征战 (zhēng zhàn) — to go on a military campaign; to fight in wars;…

Definition

A literary/formal verb for 'to campaign, to fight in wars' — used in writing or historical context, not everyday speech. Extends figuratively to long, grinding competition (sports, business, a career).

verb

to go on a military campaignto fight in wars(figurative) to compete or struggle in a field (sports, business, etc.)

Examples

征战。
Tā nián qīng shí céng suí jūn zhēng zhàn sì fāng.
When he was young, he followed the army on campaigns across the land.
征战，。
Zhè zhī qiú duì zài lián sài zhōng zhēng zhàn duō nián, zhōng yú duó guàn.
This team competed in the league for many years and finally won the championship.
，。
Tā zhēng guò wú shù chǎng zhàn, cóng wèi tuì suō.
He has fought countless battles and never backed down.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

征zhēngcampaign

战zhànbattle

征 means campaign and 战 means battle; together they describe fighting in military campaigns.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 徵; 征 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 征 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (特征, 象征) it is 徵; in others it is 征.

The story is about the traditional form 徵. It originally meant punishment, from a picture of a knife with tooth-shaped protrusions on its back; later forms kept that sense.

Open 征 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

占戈战

Meaning part形符xíngfú

戈戈gē

Sound part声符shēngfú

占

占zhàn战zhàn

Same sound today

战 pairs 占, which gives its sound, with 戈, a weapon.

Open 战 →

Appears in